Pat your story of Mike and Hoag brought such a smile to my face. The mention of the trailer Mike and Hoag shared on Boon road brought a long forgotten memory back. I was a quite young back in those days and Mike must have been asked to look out for me as I stayed with them for a weekend, I was thrilled as I really looked up to these guys. They had been bird hunting and what an experience as they taught me to dress the game birds. I think they secretly found a way for me to do all the plucking of feathers! I recall another Mike and Hoag adventure that always stays with me. One Summer evening they went giggin frogs. They had the frogs in a container in the back of Mikes convertible Mustang. Some of the frogs must have only been stunned for as they drove there were frogs jumping out of the back seat of the Mustang! I am sure Mike and Hoag are having a few laughs right now recalling all the fun & adventure those two shared.

I'd known Shag since 1972 when Hoag and I were engaged to be married. Shag was our best man when we married in 1973 but before this, both guys got out of the Navy around the same time and joined the Naval Reserve. I will never forget when they had to go to Jacksonville Florida for active duty for 2 weeks in April 1973. They were living together in a trailer out on Boon Road and they both had long hair; Hoag's was shoulder length and Mike's looked like Einstein's. Well, first off, neither was looking forward to active duty and secondly, they were really upset that they would have to get their hair cut upon arrival at the NAS. I remember them discussing for weeks how they could get around not getting hair cuts. After all, this was the early 70s and no one had short hair unless they were forced to!! So one day, they came up with a plan: they would buy wigs and wear them the entire time they were on duty! So they bought the wigs and when they got down to Florida they put them on before arriving on base. Things went along OK for about a day when they were walking down the pier with their white sailor hats sitting on top of their wigs and a big wind gust came up and blew their hats off just as the Commander was walking by. The guys couldn't feel that the hats blew off and the Commander began yelling to them to retrieve the hats. As they turned to run and get the hats, their wigs blew off, their ponytails were exposed and their cover was "blown". Needless to say, they ended up with the dreaded hair cuts but we all had a good laugh about the story which was told for years!

Don't think of him as gone away- his journey's just begun,
life holds so many facets- this earth is only one.

Just think of him as resting from the sorrows and the tears
in a place of warmth and comfort where there are no days and years.

Think how he must be wishing that we could know today 
how nothing but our sadness can really pass away.

And think of him as living in the hearts of those he touched 
for nothing loved is ever lost- and he was loved so much.    

E.Brenneman